Poyln: A Gigul, Veretski Pass’s recording with Joel Rubin, uncovers the repertoire of pre-Holocaust traditional, previously lost, Polish-Jewish music. Veretski Pass has collaborated with the traditional Jewish clarinetist, Joel Rubin, to create a program of music that revitalizes the pieces and styles of music that were previously deemed lost, but recovered through the field work, archival research and scholarship of Joel Rubin, Cookie Segelstein, Stuart Brotman and Joshua Horowitz. more...

The second CD by the acclaimed Joel Rubin Ensemble continues its meditation on the Russian-Jewish musical legacy, which it began with the 1997 release, Beregovski’s Wedding (Wergo). The ensemble under the direction of legendary clarinetist Rubin brings together some of the world’s greatest improvising musicians to explore how Jewish music could sound at the beginning of the 21st century – music from another time and place, but thoroughly grounded in the present. It features Hungarian cimbalom virtuoso Kálmán Balogh, Italian accordion wizard Claudio Jacomucci and star violinist David Chernyavsky, along with Ferenc Kovács (trumpet), Csaba Novák (bass), Sándor Budai (second violin) and Pete Rushefsky (tsimbl). more...

“A klezmer classic … an important album to have in one’s collection
(Jewish Herald-Voice)

“Rubin is meanwhile the undisputed mentor of the American New Klezmer Revival. And rightly so, as proved by Hungry Hearts, on which Rubin is accompanied by leaders of the genre. In contrast to many … attempts to approach klezmer in an innovative way, here one finds ‘soul.’ No academic demonstration of virtuosity, but rather a natural, living music which obviously imparts as good a time to listeners as it did to the musicians themselves”
(Westzeit 7/98) more...

This trendsetting recording was the very first based entirely on melodies from the most important collection of eastern European Jewish music, that of Ukrainian-Jewish ethnomusicologist Moyshe Beregovski (1892-1961). Many of these pieces had not been performed since they were collected over seventy years ago and have since become standards of the klezmer revival. A work of art and at the same time a moving historical document, Beregovski’s Khasene represents a landmark, bringing together leading European and American performers of klezmer, Romani (gypsy) and Balkan music, jazz and new music to create a totally unique sound. more...

Music featured in Mark Wexler’s documentary films “Me and My Matchmaker” (USA 1996) and “Tell Them Who You Are” (USA 2005), Zeydes un Eyniklekh brings together several generations of American klezmer musicians in a musical tribute to the “King of Klezmer,” clarinetist Dave Tarras (1895-1989). A consummate master of the art of klezmer ornamentation, Joel Rubin is accompanied by the Epstein Brothers Orchestra. Together they perform the wedding and celebratory music of the eastern European immigrants in America. The Epstein Brothers, who are recipients of the prestigious 1998 National Heritage Fellowship from the US National Endowment for the Arts, as well as Pete Sokolow and Danny Rubinstein all played at various times with Dave Tarras, the clarinetist from the Ukraine who is the embodiment of “klezmer” for several generations of American Jews. more...

The classic recording by Joel Rubin and Josh Horowitz that has influenced much of contemporary klezmer since its release in 1994, with its early music approach and focus on eastern European repertoire. Rubin & Horowitz create an intimate kaleidoscope of sounds which evokes the original beauty of the instrumental wedding and celebratory music of the eastern European Jewish world. The tone of this unique recording is set by the brilliant high register of Joel Rubin’s C clarinet, together with the ethereal tsimbl, the Jewish hammer dulcimer, and the Budowitz accordion from 1889, both beautifully played by Josh Horowitz. more...